After a heated hearing, the Senate’s homeland security committee has advanced a bill to outlaw stock trading by members of Congress.
The bill changes and renames what was originally the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act. It is now known as the HONEST Act.
Key elements would not take effect until the start of next term, meaning they would not affect President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, or other serving senators and members of Congress.
Homeland Security Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the new measure “protects Donald Trump” because of that timing.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a cosponsor of the bill, disagreed, saying that all elected officials to whom it would apply are “treated the same in that respect.”
The Missourian broke with his fellow Republicans to support the legislation, which ultimately passed the Senate committee in an 8–7 vote.
“I want a bill that can pass this committee, that can pass the Senate, and that can be signed into law by the president,” Hawley said, while acknowledging that “this is not the perfect bill.”
But subsequent developments have raised doubts about Trump’s support.
Hawley voted against an amendment from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) that would have investigated stock trading by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her husband over the previous quarter century.
Asked about the bill on Wednesday afternoon, Trump told a reporter, “Conceptually, I like it,” before adding that “Nancy Pelosi should be investigated.”
He later took to Truth Social to condemn Hawley’s vote on the Scott amendment, saying that Hawley is “playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats.”
“I don’t think real Republicans want to see their president, who has had unprecedented success, targeted, because of the ‘whims’ of a second-tier senator named Josh Hawley,” Trump added.
Sparks Fly Among Lawmakers
Hawley cosponsored the original version of the bill in April with Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), another committee member.
He provided the new version on July 30 in conjunction with the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.).
While Paul said he only received the new language “when we arrived in the committee,” Peters said it had been sent out days earlier.
Moreno, a cosponsor of the original bill who voted against the Hawley-Peters substitute, complained about how the modified legislation had been made available to the committee.
“I have not read the mountains of paper that’s in front of me,” he said, adding, “This is the most absurd process I’ve ever seen.”
The measure prohibits members of Congress or their spouses from buying or selling stocks or most similar instruments. It carves out exceptions for U.S. Treasury notes, diversified mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds.
“We have an opportunity here today to do something that the public has wanted us to do for decades,” Hawley said before votes on the measure and proposed amendments to it.
He said existing insider trading laws and financial disclosure requirements are not enough given the sort of information lawmakers receive.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) disagreed.
“This is a completely unnecessary piece of legislation that’s going to create all kinds of unintended consequences,” he said.
He argued that it would discourage competent people in the private sector from public service, calling it “legislative demagoguery.”
Scott, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, questioned the spirit behind the measure.
“Somehow, now, if you’ve made money, somehow it’s negative up here,” he said.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) defended the measure, saying that “people don’t believe that we are here for the right reasons.”
She, too, noted that she found the bill imperfect.
“I am willing to make the good work instead of waiting for the perfect,” Slotkin said.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) also spoke positively of the Hawley-Peters bill.
“There’s no way that we should try to stop this in its tracks right now when there’s an opportunity for us to really rebuild that trust with voters that has been eroding for quite a while—and it’s not just a Republican problem. It is also a Democratic problem,” he said.
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